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WV Agriculture Commissioner Will Not Seek Re-Election

West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass said Tuesday he won’t seek re-election in 2012, clearing the way for others in his agency and in the industry to test their own potential candidacies.

Douglass made the announcement at the Capitol in Charleston a day after informing his staff.

The 84-year-old Democrat has been elected 11 times and is the nation’s longest-serving agriculture commissioner. He served six terms between 1964 and 1984, and he’s won five more terms since 1992.

“I’m afraid I might have worn the voters out,“ he joked about his reason for retiring. “After 11 terms, that’s 44 years.“

Douglass said both he and his wife are in relatively good health, but the commute from his Mason County farm has become harder with age, and he’s ready to step aside for a new generation of leadership.

Three people within the department have expressed an interest in the position, he said, “so I think it’s only fair I get out of the way so they can get out and see what they can develop.“

While Douglass expects many contenders to emerge, he notes the statutory requirements that the commissioner be “a practical farmer, learned in the science of agriculture” and one who has made agriculture his principal business.

The Mason County farmer was recruited to the department as an assistant commissioner by then-Commissioner John T. Johnson in 1957. As commissioner himself, he was out of office for just four years, after running an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1988.

Douglass last ran in 2008, touting achievements that included the creation of meat inspection, food safety and animal health programs. He also pushed for technology and security measures such as a mobile lab able to identify dangerous viruses in hours rather than weeks.

Douglass, who runs a 540-acre beef cattle and hay farm with son Tom, said he never dreamed of such a career.

“Even after being elected, I never expected to be in this office as long as I have,“ he said. “It just always seemed as though there was something more that needed to be accomplished.“

In his last term, he’s won funding from legislators for a cold storage facility near Ripley that serves as a warehouse for food that goes to West Virginia’s schools and the state’s donated foods program. But he envisions a broader use — disaster preparation.

“In the back of my mind, I’m aware of what can happen if commerce is disrupted or we have some emergency here, and we do not have a food supply or a water supply,“ he said. “Look at what happened in Japan. ... They were not prepared.“

The warehouse, he said, could provide space for as many as 200,000 cases of nonperishable food that could be distributed in an emergency “so we can look after ourselves until help can come,“ he said. “Most people don’t realize there’s less than a seven-day supply of food in any West Virginia city.“

Douglass has served as president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

He was chairman of the Southern Regional Committee for Food and Agriculture under President Jimmy Carter, and he’s twice served as president of the Southern United States Trade Association.

He’s repeatedly testified before Congress on farming issues, and he chaired the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases an unprecedented four times.

Douglass is also the only West Virginian ever elected national president of the Future Farmers of America and presided over the first national FFA conference following World War II.

Douglass said he’s considering several projects, including a book about his experience with West Virginia’s governors. It’s largely dictated already, he said, “and I’d probably like to see that through.“

However, “we don’t want to publish that as long as I’m living,“ he said.

Each governor “had their mannerisms” and each was focused on specific goals, Douglass said, but they missed many opportunities.

For example, he said, an idea he pitched in his gubernatorial campaign about using earth from mountaintop removal coal mining projects to build highways and other infrastructure is only now taking root in southern West Virginia.

The words “if”, “could”, “should” figure prominently in this article. How can they make these projections when the EPA hasn’t announced the exact details of their plan “for a month or two”? I seriously doubt that there will be a decrease in energy costs anytime in the future. My guess would be that the cost of energy will continue to rise dramatically, due to the new regulations, and there will be many excuses to explain why they have. Wait and see.

Imagine all the empty apartments filled with federally paid for, “supervised” prisoners. These things were never built or remodeled not to make a profit. Add a pell grant and bring it. Probably room for more at Hayes City. Maybe buy biscuits on a voucher of some kind. Can’t wait.

We need the feds or someone who can’t be gagged and bought off to come to the County to investigate the State’s mismanagement of funds with its take over of our schools and at the same time to dig deep into our other crooked deals.

Until that is done and responsible persons are held accountable nothing will change.

Abuse of functions occurs when an official provides proprietary or confidential information, in exchange for interest in any property, transaction or company.
When you become aware of these exchanges and transactions at any level, expose them for what they are and make changes.

This is a wonderful article. No longer do we have to insinuate the failure of public education.

Thank you Governor Tomblin for setting the record of failure straight for West Virginians.

Claiming that 64% of community college and technical school students need help is pretty much saying a 64% failure rate. What of the students that have not entered the ranks of additional schooling? You might think there rate of failure would be much higher if considered?

Yes, West Virginia is on the leading edge for sure. At the current rate, we will soon own 50th place in educational outcomes. Move over Mississippi, here we come.

Governor Tomblin says “In fact, 64 percent of West Virginia community and technical college students need developmental courses in English or math.“ However, he is totally missing the boat when he is bragging on it only taking one semester for them to catch up. In a normal world, NONE of the students who graduate from high school and go on to higher education should need 5 minutes of remediation in mathematics or English. The fact that remediation is needed by the majority shows our K-12 system is failing the students, totally. What we need is the state to get out of the education business, since it’s obvious they don’t know what they are doing!

John F. Kennedy, One man can make a difference, and every man should try.

It’s not too late to stop the travesty of forced intervention for the purpose of controlling the public check book and the devastation produced by the over reaching, self granted authority of your WV Board of Education.

Governor, with all due respect, if just one time you would concentrate the tools and abilities at your disposal to start from the bottom up providing a solid Pre-K through 12 education without the fancy window dressing WV might pull itself out of the education hole that’s been dug.
Addressing problems from the top down, after the fact, has not brought any resolution.

Looks like madness has taken over and replaced education, nationwide. Time for parents to take over and make sure their children are not taken over by oligarchs in the “education” field determined to indoctrinate children into submission. The whole idea of any government running education is insane!

Did the county commission of Gilmer follow the rules when they put their administrator on the health center board while she still worked for them? The GCC President bragged in the paper that his board had voted for the MH lease and his fellow commission did the same in last weeks meeting. The administrator is the president of the health center board. Commissioner C is on there as well so that explains that. Funny thing about it is the MH lease wasn’t on the commission agenda so did they follow the rules then? Were they following the rules when they didn’t have a clerk to take minutes during delegation? Heard a lot of serious questions got asked that never made the news.